History and information about Sierra Vista, Arizona

"The canyon at the mouth of which this community is located was first known as Garden Canyon because it contained the produce gardens for Fort Huachuca. It was also sometimes referred to as Hayes and Tanner Canyon by old-timers because two men by those names had a sawmill in the canyon. When it became necessary to provide post office facilities for civilians near Fort Huachuca, the name Garden Canyon was selected. This was later changed to Fry, after Oliver Fry, who had come to the area toward the end of the nineteenth century with a group of homesteaders. In 1955 the name of the town was changed to Sierra Vista by petition of its citizens."

Post Office est. as Garden Canyon March 4, 1919. Name changed to Fry April 1, 1937. Incorporated as Sierra Vista August 9, 1955.

Barnes, Will C.; Granger, Byrd (ed.) Arizona Place Names University of Arizona Press. 1960.
P. 52

"This commmunity is at the mouth of Garden Canyon. The first post office outside the fort came into existence when the commanding officer of the Fort discovered the post-mistress engaged in a profitable business bootlegging whiskey to soldiers. Her family as ordered to leave the military reservation at once. Her husband, however, was a feisty Civil War veteran who loudly asserted that the might of the Post Office Department was greater than that of the United States Army, and he'd be blasted if his family was going to move. Infuriated, the commanding officer sent wagons which hauled the family off with dispatch, depositing them at the north gate of the post. There they went back into business. In setting up a post office, authorities named it for Thomas J. Turner (arrivedin Arizona, 1882), later Sheriff of Cochise County (1901-1904). The railroad siding already had his name.

The community had an on-again-off-again existence according to the fortunes of the Fort itself. With the establishment of the old post as an electronic proving ground, the town snapped out of the somnolence and in 1982 is a thriving city. The post office followed the fortunes of the Fort, enduring a series of name chnages. The information is complicated by the existence of a railroad siding first called Turner, but in 1928, changed to Campstone (pronounced Campstun). PO est as Turnder, July 15, 1897, Horace H. Temple pm; disc December 31, 1919; est as Overton, June 11, 1917, Mrs. Jean Clark Wilder PM; disc May 4, 1918; reest as Garden Canyon, March 4, 1919 William Carmichael PM (four miles east from Turner on railroad); name changed to Fry, April 1, 1937 (for Oliver Fry. LS Fry was postmaster in 1937); incorporated as Sierra Vista by petition Aug. 9, 1955."

Barnes, Will C.; Granger, Byrd (ed.) Arizona's names : X marks the place Falconer Pub. Co. : distributed by Treasure Chest Publications, c1983. P. 562

Fort Huachuca Museum
PO Box 673 Fort Huachuca AZ 85636
9am to 4pm on weekdays; 1pm to 4pm on weekends.
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
(520) 458-4716
http://huachuca-usaic.army.mil/History/Html/3fhmuse.html

Early Sierra Vista, its people and neighbors : a narrative history / by Jac Hein ; cover design and artwork by Diane Mitten.
F819 .S54 H4x 1983

Sierra-Vista, Arizona, Urban Challenge in Yearling Community; Fort-Huachuca
CE EPH DTO-SIERRA V.3

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Last Updated: July 26, 2002
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